Frustrations Of A Modern World
by Rocker-Of-Random
Summary: Also written by Giant Killeress. The typical fic where some of Tamora Pierce's characters find themselves in modern times. Quote: Not the typical 'Tortallans come to the future' sort of thing! Worth reading because of our neverending wit and humour!
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1:**

**Unexpected Visitors**

**Disclaimer: We, unfortunately, do not own Jon, Raoul, Alanna, Gary, George, In The Hand Of The Goddess, or any of the other cool things that Tamora Pierce invented... Although we wish we were as cool as she was, we are not, and as hard as it is, must own up to this fact... If we feel like it...**

The hum of snoring emitted gently from underneath a large, crumpled comforter. Suddenly, a groan could be heard as a girl sat up

on the edge of her bed with a start. She noticed her clock/radio was flashing 12:00 AM as it would had their been a power outage.

But there couldn't have been one... The lamp on the bedside table was still on. She cursed herself for leaving it on. But at the same

time relief swept over her as she remembered it was a Saturday and she didn't have to go to work. Still, she was one of those

orderly people who actually flossed their teeth, think sleeping past nine is unhealthy, and actually gets a full nine hours off sleep

when staying over at a friends place for the night. She had deep brown eyes and frizzy brown hair that she could never control, a

deep, Iranian skin-tone, and an obsession with the colour pink.

Introducing Nina Payne.

She glanced at her bright pink wristwatch.

"11:57" it screamed to her mind with every tick the second hand made.

Then, she heard a giggle. A faint giggle. But still, one of triumphant excitment. Like a four-year-old might make after successfully

sacking the poor guy playing Santa in the mall. She prodded the two girls next to her in bed, she wondered why they were sleeping

there as opposed to in their own rooms... On second thought she didn't really want to know. They didn't move. Apparently

still asleep. Her eyebrows knitted together in confusion.

Slowly, cautiously, she glanced over the edge of the bed, muttering about not yet having coffee. Her eyes widened as they

focused. A rather tall man with tight black curly hair was laying on the floor in between the wall and the bed. There wasn't much

room. Nina was surprised he could fit, as he looked particularly... Buff! There was just enough room in between the wall and the

bed to fit a bedside table that held a lamp, a clock/radio (still flashing), and a well-thumbed copy of "Lionness Rampant".

All the crap they had lying on the floor didn't give the unusual man much space to lie on his side, either. Indeed, this man was

seeking enjoyment by pulling the plug of the previously-mentioned clock/radio in and out of the electrical wall socket. Finally, Nina

realized he really was there and screamed a harassed high-pitched sixteen-year-old-girl-getting-raped-by-an-ugly-old-man-in-a-

dark-alley shriek.

"Shut_ up_!" someone said from the other side of the king-size bed.

"_Meaghan!_" Nina screamed in desperation.The girl on the other side of the bed was actually only half-on the bed. The top portion

of her body was dangling off the edge of the bed."What do you want?" The muffled voice responded.

"There's a strange man on the side of the bed! Staring at me!" Nina exclaimed.

"I've got a hangover! Leave me ALONE!!!"

"But-"

"Nina, if this is one of your stupid jokes, I _cannot_ handle it right now!"

"MEAGHAN!"

"Nina, it's probably just someone you met at a party last night and screwed around with, but you were too drunk to remember."

"Meaghan..." Nina was desperate."Meaghan is not in right now, please do _not_ leave a message as she does not consult her brain to

check them."

"But Meaghan! He looks allot like Sir Raoul Of Goldenlake!"

"WHAT?!" Meaghan screeched as she fell off the bed with a ka-thunk.

"That's Lord Sir Raoul of Goldenlake and Mallory's Peak to you!" a rather deep voice said from his position on the floor.

Apparently, Meaghan caught a glimpse of him from under the bed. "AAAHHH!" she screamed, throwing a teddy bear. (She called

it "Bear", but it looked more like a road kill muskrat.) It soared over the bed and hit Raoul square in the face. He started to scream,

horrified that a stuffed animal that looked like a dead mouse had fallen from the ceiling.

"UGH! SHUT UP! SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP!"

The girl in the center of the bed sounded rather annoyed. She burrowed her face in a

pillow. Knowing better than to annoy Erica in the morning, Nina and Meaghan left her alone. Meaghan rolled over on the floor so

that she was facing up. She had brown, straight hair so dark most mistook it for black. It had blue streaks in it, which tended to,

when her hair was brushed properly, make it shimmer. Her eyes were big, and resembled her hair in the way

that they were so dark brown that they looked black. She was French, giving her pale skin. Unfortunately, genetics gave her

reappearing and disappearing acne.

Yet _another _scream pierced the air. More high-pitched. Alanna of Trebond came running out of an en-suite bathroom clutching her

left hand. The skin was raw, red, and burned.

"Guh," Erica moaned. The girl in the middle of the bed concluded that sleep was impossible, and yanked the pink comforter off her

face. She had mid-length, straight, chestnut hair she highlighted different colours and eyes that couldn't decide to be green or brown.

She just called them hazel. She was Italian, making all of her hair - everywhere - thick. Which concluded in eyebrow

problems that Meaghan was often fixing.

"Guh!" She repeated.

Nina rolled her eyes.

"Hang-over!" Erica groaned.

"Maybe you shouldn't go out partying all the time, and if you do, at least accept the consequences that take-" Nina started.

"Nina, you came with us! I remember! I didn't drink _that_ much!" Erica argued.

"Yes, but I didn't drink as much as-" Nina started and got cut off by Erica, but her accusing pointing finger conclued the un-finnished

sentence. The sender finger pointed directly at Meaghan."GUH!" Erica interrupted, as a headache worked its way into her

forehead. "My head feels like 50 people are inside, standing in a circle, facing out. And each one of them is hacking at the inside of

my brain with a sword."

Alanna screamed again. She had burned her hand on Meaghan's curling iron, which in the commotion had been dropped on the

floor, and since then had started to smoke.

"What the hell did you do to my curling iron?!" Meaghan yelled.

"GAH!" Erica jumped out of bed at noticing the possible floor-harassment. Particularly worried about the kitchen and bathroom

floors, as Nina and Meaghan had blackmailed her into using her "Pocket Guitar Amp" fund to get the floors properly tiled. Erica ran

into the en-suite and grabbed a toothbrush cup. She filled it with water and dumped it on the curling iron, which, in response, began

to hiss and sizzle.

"That was stupid." Nina observed.

"Don't do that! God! You'll ruin it!" Meaghan shrieked as she ran over and unplugged the hair-curling device. She picked it up with

a towel, careful to only touch the handle, and placed it in the sink."Hopefully it's not ruined!" she hissed.

"See that?" Erica said, pointing to the floor where a small brown burn was, no bigger than a Converse All Star sticker. "That is my

pocket guitar amp. Right there. Funny how_ you _didn't have to use your 'Green Day Bass Drum' fund on the flat." Erica complained.

Meaghan glared at her.

"Because my dead uncle is the one who gave us the flat," she retorted, Meaghan was a grumpy person in the morning. The real

reason Nina hadn't forced Meaghan to use that money on some kitchen cabinets or something was because she didn't actually know

that Meaghan had some money stashed away to buy a bass drum signed by her favorite band, whom she practically worshipped.

"What 'Green Day Bass Drum' fund?" Nina asked, obliviously.

"WHAT ARE ALANNA AND RAOUL DOING IN OUR FLAT?" Meaghan shrieked, trying to change the topic. Nina shook

her head. "I need coffee." She stated. She got out of bed and trudged down the hallway to the kitchen. As she entered the room of

cuisine, she saw King Jonathan playing with Meaghan's crystal margarita glass. "PUT IT DOWN! MEAGHAN WILL MURDER

YOU IF SO MUCH AS A SCRATCH- EEEEE!"

In the shock of Nina yelling at him, Jon dropped the precious glass. It plummeted towards the floor. Nina dove. She couldn't let it

hit the floor... Meaghan would murder! She felt the cool crystal in her hands as she barely caught it. "Oh-my-God." She gasped.She

got up and turned the corner to the living room. Only to find Gary playing with the TV remote. He had managed to turn it on, and it

was on MTV. 50 Cent was "singing" Candy Shop, half-naked girls "dancing" on-screen. Gary was standing in front of the sofa and-

Nina closed her eyes and bowed her head in shame-imitating them.She pretended she had not seen what she had and walked back

to the bedroom. Apparently, Meaghan and Erica had discovered George in the walk-in closet... Wearing Nina's $500.00

dress.

"TAKE THAT OFF!!! TAKE IT OFF, NOW!!!" Meaghan screamed.

Erica, Alanna, and Raoul were laughing too hard to yell at him.

"What? Don't you think I look pretty?" George asked, rhetorically.

"It doesn't belong to you!" Meaghan argued.

"Fine. I did not think I looked good in women's garments, anyhow." he said. He looked down thoughtfully, then up at

Meaghan."Mayhap you already noticed, but these skirts seem to be missing quite a few layers! They do not even come to my

knees!"

"Erica! Go sort out Alanna and Raoul! I'll get what's-his-face!" Meaghan directed, indicating George.

"What about Jon playing with Meaghan's margarita glass and Gary imitating sluts on TV?"

Nina questioned."WHAT?" Meaghan screamed, marching out the bedroom door.

"Oh, I'm sure Gary will be fine! He'll come around to a normal state in a while!" Nina called after her.

"It's not Gary I'm after! It's my margarita glass I'm worried about!" She shrieked from down the hall.

**Hey. Thanks for reading. Trust us, it gets better in the following chapters. This is... weird. Very weird..._ Constructive criticism welcome!!!_**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two:**

**A Clash Of Worlds**

Later, after getting Gary, Jon, Alanna, George, and Raoul sorted out, they sat them down on the couch.

"So..." Erica started, extremely confused. She scratched her head under the black West 49 touque that she got on clearance and wore even though it was mid-summer.

"How did you guys get here?" Nina spoke the obvious question.

"That depends. Where are we?" Jon asked.

"YOU'RE IN THE FREAKING 21ST CENTURY!" Meaghan screamed.

"Oh..." Gary said sadly. "We must have..."

"What?" Erica couldn't help saying. She was very impatient.

"Do you believe in... Time travel?" Gary looked curious to see their answer.

"Fuck yes!" Meaghan screamed.

Erica laughed. "No."

"Erica, if they didn't successfully travel through time, who do you think they are?" Nina reasonably questioned.

"First of all, they were never actually real, they were written up by a lady who wanted to make some money. So if they weren't real, they couldn't possibly travel through time...Ever." Erica paused. "I think they're the neighbors kids who heard we were reading Tamora Pierce books and came to freak us out because Nina gave them celery sticks last year on Halloween."

"Damn!" Meaghan said. "I knew that would come back to haunt us!"

"But celery is better for you and cheaper than Tootsie Rolls!" Nina pointed out in a high-pitched voice.

"But you can do so much more with Tootsie Rolls!" Meaghan exclaimed.

Nina and Erica stared at Meaghan.

"Ummm. I think I'm pretty real..." Alanna said, poking herself.

"Well that's what you want us to think!" Erica argued confidently. Nina went over to George and started prodding him.

"He feels real!"

"Hey!" Alanna protested. "He's taken."

"Is the Lionness jealous that she's got some competition?" George grinned.

"Sorry George, but... No... Just... No." Nina said, slightly disgusted. "And Alanna, he's all yours."

"Well." Raoul started. "I can tell you the story of how we got here."

"Right..." Erica said, doubtful.

Raoul looked at his friends. "Shall I tell the story?"

Jon nodded. "They seem harmless enough."

"That's what you think!!!" Erica was standing in a karate position in a flash.

Alanna raised her eyebrows and pulled out her sword. "Sorry, little being of the future. 'Tis but my duty to protect the king."

"Erica... Maybe it's better if we become friends with the people who are holding blades five times the size of your head." Nina suggested, not really caring anyway if Erica got an arm chopped off and could never play guitar again.

"But I have..." Erica ran to the kitchen and could be heard rummaging through the drawers. She came back into the living room, weilding a butter knife. "Kitchen knives!!!"

"Great idea, I was getting hungry, make me some toast, too! And not on Nina's whole grain stuff, I want mine on white bread!" Meaghan said. Everyone ignored her.

Alanna scoffed at Erica's little blade. She took it from Erica's hand easily and examined it. Pretty soon she was rolling around on the floor laughing. "It is not pointed, neither seraded!"

Erica stuck out her tongue at the Lionness. "It's the only one I'm allowed!"

Nina growled at her. "Damn straight. You're not to be trusted with knives anymore."

"We've been over this! He was a hideous boyfriend, anyway!"

"Watch it, he was my pick!"

"Shut up, Nina." Erica glowered her eyes.

"The little one with the funny tunic can't even weild a proper dagger!" Alanna howled.

"Funny tunic? It's a tee shirt that has a skateboard design on it."

"Skatebohred? What is this... Skatebohred?" Alanna stopped laughing to stare at Erica, slightly interested, with her head cocked to the right.

Erica gasped and stared at her, with eyes wide. Thinking, '_DEPRIVED! Didn't they have skateboards in the middle ages?'_

She ran to the bedroom for one of her skateboards.

"This is a skateboard." She thrust it into Alanna's hands, who just looked at it, confused, spinning the worn wheels on the bottom.

"You ride it. Like this." Erica took it and tried riding around the coffee table, which proved difficult, considering all the crap on the floor.

"'Tis a rather stupid mode of transport, I prefer a horse. Furthermore, you must look like an idiot, riding it around."

Meaghan held Erica back as she tried to hit Alanna over the head with the body of the board.

After they got Erica and Alanna seated in their original positions, which wasn't easy (and they still growled at each other every now and again), they asked Raoul to explain how they got to modern times again.

"Okay. No more interruptions, please...

Jon here got a letter, which we thought was from Alanna but later figured out it was actually an evil man with the gift. The letter said Alanna was staying at the Dancing Dove. We hadn't seen her in a while and decided to pay her a visit. I assume you know Alanna's story?" Raoul asked, expecting them to say yes and that they heard it from a passing group of entertainers or something.

"Oh, yes! We all do! In fact, we know _EVERYTHING!" _Nina stated.

Alanna looked rightfully confused. "I'se be begging your pardon?"

"Yes, everything! It's all been put into a series of books by a lady who probably has made a filthy amount of money off your tale!" Meaghan said, handing Alanna "In The Hand Of The Goddess" which had been lying around on the floor next to the sofa for some time.

Silence ensued as she thumbed through the pages. "Great Mother Goddess... Save me..." She muttered as she turned scarlet. She had a page open and motioned for Jon to read it, too.

"It's very accurate..." Suddenly he turned even more red than Alanna.

"What?" George asked. "What?!" He looked over to try to read the open paperback, but Alanna closed it fast enough to make a soft "Thwunk".

Gary, who had not been listening, suddenly came back down to Earth and said "Hey! Alanna, that looks just like you used to as a knight-in-training!" Pointing at the book.

The room fell silent.

"Anyway..." Raoul started up again, clearing his throat. "We went to the room in the Dancing Dove. Turns out George got the same letter and was also visiting. But when we got there, everyone was being threatened by a group of dark sorcerors who claimed that they were called... What was it? The Death Meeters?"

"No," Jon said. "No, I am sure it was the Death Eaters."

"Ah, yes. Well, there was one sorceror who seemed to be in charge... Lord Volde... Voldi... Volymorch?"

"Voldemort." Jon corrected. "I have a very accurate memory."

"'Tis so. And then this boy with the likes of a scar above his eyebrow appeared who seemed to be positively mental. He just appeared in the room... with a loud BANG noise!" Everyone winced slightly when he yelled "BANG!" Erica, Nina, and Meaghan exchanged glances. How the hell did Harry Potter manage to get into Tortallan times?

Let alone, Tortall? And if he did... Why hadn't he come to the 21st Century to tell us how to do it?

Raoul continued "He claimed his title to be Harry Potter. He and Voldemort got into a huge argument. Something about killing innocent bystanders. But anyways, we were all being held up by some crazy Voldemort guy, and just to show off his power-"

"-Mad skills!" Gary corrected.

Raoul glanced at him strangely and then restarted. "And just to show off his mad skills, he screamed "AVADA KEDAVRA!" and pointed a stick at Faithful, who dodged the spell. But then he screamed it again and pointed his stick at a really big bug on the floor, and the bug flipped over and died instantly. By now, we were kind of freaked out. Everyone was kind of just standing there, staring at the dead bug on the floor, all horrified. And then Jon over here screams "SAVE THE KING!" and hides behind Gary. Then we all stared at him and-"

"I insist you skip that part to save me of greater humiliation." Jon said with defiance.

Raoul continued."Voldemort tried screaming his bug-is-dead spell at us, but the Harry Potter guy screamed something we couldn't make out and-"

"I swear he said something about a hamburger!" Alanna persisted.

Raoul looked annoyed, having been interrupted once again. "And we soared through time and space and ended up here."

"That doesn't make much sense..." Nina said, suspiciously.

"See! They're the neighbors kids from last Halloween!" Erica shrieked at Nina.

"Well we can't just throw them out..." Meaghan said, eyeing Raoul and his buffness.

"Are you suggesting we keep them here?" Nina's eyebrows were arched into funny... slanty arches.

"Well, yeah! Just until they find the way back to their own time zone..." Meaghan thought for a second, then added "What else do we do with them?"

"Okay, fine!" Nina agreed. "But we have to make them... Normal-looking. Just enough to fit into our society."

"We get to buy you guys wardrobes!" Meaghan laughed.

"Not only that, we get to give them makeovers!" Nina giggled.

"Perfect..." Erica rolled her eyes."Shopping."

"We have to take you to Marko!" Meaghan piped in.

Erica brightened up a bit. Marko was one of those gay stylist friends. He was quite amusing to be around. Nina liked him on the inside, but pretended to hate him. She had this big grudge against him because he licked all the icing off her birthday cake in grade five. Erica and Meaghan didn't blame him, as they thought Dairy Queen irresistable.

"What do we do when Monday rolls around and we have to go to work?! There's no way they're being left home unsupervised!" Nina said.

"Well, Erica doesn't have a job!" Meaghan grinned.

"Uh-uh! No way am I playing babysitter!"

"What about for a pocket guitar amp? A _Peavey_ pocket guitar amp..." Nina bribed. She was quite the master when things came down to bribery!

Erica had to think for a minute.

"Nope. As much as I would like to accept your offer, Eye Kandy is auditioning for another contest this Monday!"

"Yeah, it's true, Nina. This time they actually have a chance of making it into the contest!" Meaghan mocked. Eye Kandy was the crappy name of the crappy garage band Erica was in with her crappy skater guy friends.

"Why is it called Eye Kandy? None of your guy friends are all that hot..." Nina pointed out.

"Yeah, but I'm hot!" Erica nodded.

"Well, Chris just got dreadlocks, and that doesn't look too bad!" Meaghan commented.

"Thank you! Although I was hoping that you'd back up my 'my hotness makes up for their non-hotness theorie'." Erica said. "Hey, maybe you guys should just take them to work..."

"Nnnnno." Meaghan and Nina said simultaneously.

"You don't have much choice. See, Nina can take Jon, since her car only can hold two people, Meaghan can take George, Alanna and Raoul, and I'll take Gary!"

"How come you only get stuck with one person?" Meaghan whined.

"You forget that not only am I the guitarist for Eye Kandy, I'm also the roadie. I already have enough shit to carry around without two extra people. I'm fine with just the one."

George tugged on Meaghan's sleeve like a two-year-old child. "I'm thirsty!" He whined.

"Shut up, George." Meaghan snarked.

"Wow. This is like 'Back To The Future', except... The complete opposite. And Michael J. Fox. Do you see a Michael J. Fox anywhere around here? I don't think so!" Erica said to Gary, kind of flipping out.

Gary had no idea what the hell she was talking about.

She liked it that way.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three:**

**The Cat, The Semi Truck, And The Ozone Layer**

"The cat came, too?" Erica questioned.

"Wicked! A posessed talking cat from the past!" Meaghan exclaimed, then quickly started humming the 'Twilight Zone' theme.

"Yeah, Faithful came." Alanna said as she reached down to pick up the jet black cat that had jumped from the inside of her tunic onto the living room floor.

"Nice!" Erica glanced at Nina.

"You can't bring it to the salon!" Nina stated. Alanna was dismayed.

"Why?"

"They won't let you bring him in."

"Hey, are you forgetting something?" Meaghan said, ironically. "She can bring whatever she wants in there. I work at the salon."

"True, but I still think you should leave him here." Nina persisted.

"Fine." Alanna gave in, slightly disgruntled.

5 minutes later, they were out on the driveway and they already had a problem, how were they to get to the salon. The only real car they had was Meaghan's red Miada but there were only 3 other seats in Meaghan's car. Erica had an old black roadie van that broke down every two blocks, was filled with empty Doritos bags, and the inside of one door was ripped off, they never used Erica's car... Ever! Nina had a sleek, black SRT Dodge Viper; it was her baby and NEVER let anyone ride in it, actually, she barley ever let anyone touch the keys! She hardly ever drove it, sometimes Meaghan and Erica wondered why she even had it. After awhile they came to the conclusion that she only had it because she loved to look at it, and softly stroke lovingly while cooing to it. Yes, it was expensive but had been a gift from her aunt and uncle in Germany.

"Haha! You guys have to take the bus!" Meaghan said to Gary and Erica... They seemed to be getting partnered a lot.. and Erica also seemed to be warming up to him...

"What's a bus?" Alanna asked.

"It's like a car except bigger."

"What's a car?" Gary asked.

"It's something that can make you get somewhere faster than walking." Erica responded patiently.

"Like a horse?"

"Kind of..."

"Except it totally contributes to pollution." Nina hastily added.

"What's pollution?" Raoul asked.

"It's something that slowly is eating away at our ozone layer." Nina answered. All of a sudden all the of the Tortallans became alert, eyeing there surroundings carefully.

"You mean Orzone? The.. Emperor?" Jon asked tensely.

It took a second for Meaghan and the girls to clue in on what Jon was talking about. Suddenly it clicked in Nina's mind.

"No, no, no, not Orzone the Emperor of Carthak, I ment Ozone." She said.

"What's an ozone?" George asked.

"Does it not sound like some strange concoction hair product or something? Ozone. Ozone. Ozo-"

"Anyway!" Meaghan interrupted Alanna. "Alanna, Raoul, and Jon, into the red miada!"

"Miada?" Jon looked confused.

Meaghan opened the car door and shoved them in. Raoul wouldn't fit.

"There's no room for me!" Raoul said in a whiny voice.

"Into the front! And don't touch ANYTHING!" Meaghan emphasized that last word.

"Wait! WAIT!" Alanna screamed. She pounded on the door. "OUT! LET ME OUT!"

Meaghan opened the door with raised eyebrows and watched as Alanna came tumbling out and fell onto the hot cement driveway.

"What?" Meaghan asked.

"George needs to come with me!"

"UGH! FINE! JON, OUT!" Jon looked rather rejected, but got out of the car.

"GEORGE, IN!" Meaghan commanded. She looked back down at Alanna. "ALANNA, IN!" Raoul was watching the entire thing with an amused expression on his face from

the front passenger seat.

Nina had shoved Jon into her perfectly shiny car and walked around to the passenger seat. Before she did anything, she turned to Jon, with a stern look on her face.

"There are rules if you want to sit in my car, break one of the rules and you die. At this point I don't care that your some king of some land. You are in Nina's world now. Rule number one, never touch the radio, rule 2, don't touch the dash… you know what just don't touch anything. Rule 3, don't breath on anything… if you must breath do it outside of the window…" Nina sighed before fastening Jon's seatbelt as well as her own and put her keys in the ignition. Slowly she muttered under her breath while throwing the car into reverse, "Meaghan you so own me big time".

Apparently, Meaghan and Nina had forgotten all about Erica and Gary who were standing there watching them drive away. They had also forgotten that they were still in there sleep clothes, and their wallets that were inside on the counter. (or in Meaghan's case, the thing she wore to the bar last night)

"So what happens now?" Gary asked.

"You need to stop asking so many questions." There was a brief period of silence.

Erica sighed. "You let me get dressed, we grab Nina and Meaghan's wallets and some clothing for them to change into once they realize they're still in pajama pants, call a cab, lock the house, and leave. I would skateboard there, but you can't skateboard."

Another piercing moment of silence.

"What's a cab?"

"A type of car."

"What's a car?"

"We already TOLD YOU!"

In Meaghan's Car

In Meaghan's car, Raoul all of a sudden started to giggle while opening and closing the window. Alanna and George quickly started to do the same thing.

"For God's sake put the windows back where they were!" Meaghan yelled.

Raoul Alanna and George quickly complied. Meaghan then quickly made a sharp turn causing the three to squish up against the left side of the car.

"Again, For god's sake, put your damn seatbelts on!"

"It that what this strap is?" asked George fingering said object.

"What?" Alanna asked confused.

Meaghan pulled over and strapped them in. She looked out to see Nina's Viper swerve past them smoothly with Jon strapped into his seat terrified at the speed in which Nina was driving.

Meaghan started to mutter under her breath, "damn Nina, and her flashy black car. I mean who drives cars like that around anyway? I mean hello? Downtown traffic is killer on the breaks. And I look how fast she's going, I mean who goes 100 kph, EVERYWHERE they go?! I hope she crashes that precious car of hers so then who is she going to ask for rides to Uni? Not me, no way. Cause im not giving HER any rides I mean does she give me rides!?! NO!!" Meaghan continued like that while the other occupants of the car stared at her. Carefully Raoul patted her on the shoulder and asked,

"Are you ok?" Meaghan just screamed and chucked a pointed stiletto shoe at him.

In Nina's Car

"What the hell are you doing, Meaghan?" Nina asked to no one in particular as the red Miada in front of her swerved and finally pulled over.

"My name's not Meaghan, it's Jon." The dark-haired king huffed as if everyone who lived in this century was a complete idiot.

Nina rolled her eyes and accelerated on the gas peddle causing Jon to grip the leather seats in horror.

Jonathan then stuck his head completely out the window, his hair blowing in the wind like a dog's. She had asked him to close the window but a semi truck passed, and the driver honked his horn at Jon, causing him not to hear, and if he had been any taller, would have gotten hit by the semi's rear-view mirrors. Then he had said,

"Ooooh! When do we get to ride in that car?" Pronouncing 'car' like 'khaaaarrrr'.

"Not any time soon."

"Why not?"

"Because."

"Why?"

"Because."

"Why?"

"Because."

"Why?"

"Because."

"Because why?"

"Because."

At The Penthouse

The taxi was in the driveway and Gary was rooted to his spot. He finally walked towards the ugly yellow vehicle. Erica got in the front. She waited. The driver had his neck craned to look at Gary. Partly because of the unusual way he was dressed, and partly because he was just standing there... I mean really... What was he supposed to do?

Erica got back out of the cab with raised eyebrows, making a point to slam the door behind her. After shoving Gary into the back, and scrambling in after him, she leaned

over the bulky man to do up his seatbelt... And promptly caught him staring down her shirt.

Typical man.

With her only free hand she took the neckline of her black tank top (with red skulls, of course) and shoved it in between her teeth to shut out wandering eyes.

Gary turned the tomato colour that Jon and Alanna had gone earlier that day.

"Foreigner." She said to the driver, and sat down to do up her own seat belt.

"Ah. Where to?" He asked.

"TORTALL!" Gary shrieked.

"Sorry?"

"Ignore him." Erica stated arrogantly.

"How about Tyra?" The knight questioned again.

"How about you shutting up or else?" Erica warned. "At A Glance Salon, please. And no scenic routes! Go straight there!"

In Nina's Car

"Jon, can you roll up that window, please? You're going to ruin my hair." Nina tried again to get him to not act like an idiot.

She didn't want bad habits forming.

"No." The king huffed as a reply.

"Why not?"

"Well how on earth do you expect to breath if its all closed up? And besides, you told me not to touch anything."

Nina gave up.

With Gary And Erica

When they got to their final destination, they got out of the taxi and sat on the sidewalk to wait for the others.

"Didn't you just pay that man out of Nina's wallet?" Gary started up the questions again.

"... Yeah. Pretty much."

"Well, wasn't that Nina's money?"

"She has too much of the stuff anyway."

"But shouldn't you have asked her before taking from her purse?"

"My fist says she'll never know!"

And Gary shut up.

**AN: Princess of the Rogues is beta-ing the story now and DEMANDS recognition. Thanks for the reviews! Keep it up!**


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